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Update: With Uncle Sam back in business, Staten Island's Grimm 'resigned' to Obamacare

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Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, pumps his fist as he walks past reporters after a meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill on Wednesday in Washington. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills.
(Associated Press)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Rep. Michael Grimm joined a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers in ending the 16-day partial government shutdown, saying it will "force a conversation" over the next 90 days on the debt crisis and tax reform.

Grimm and his fellow House members completed the pas de deux back from the precipice with their vote at 10:20 p.m.

But Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) acknowledged that delaying or repealing Obamacare -- which was a hallmark of the shutdown chorus, of which he was a member -- won't be on the table for discussion any time in the future.

"I am resigned to it," Grimm told the Advance. "It took a super-majority to create it and it will take a super-majority to undue it. We might be able to nibble around the edges of it, (like) eliminate the medical devices tax, but to defund it or repeal it is unrealistic."

With warring factions of the Republican House majority unable to reach an agreement, Senate Democratic and Republican leaders finally forged a compromise to avert a default of the U.S. Treasury, which could have spurred a global economic crisis.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved the measure, 81-18, Wednesday evening, and the House followed suit, by a vote of 285-144.

President Obama said he would immediately sign the measure, reopening parks -- including the Gateway National Recreation Area -- and monuments, restoring government services and putting furloughed federal employees back to work.

"Employees should expect to return to work in the morning," Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement.

The deal keeps the government open through Jan. 15 and calls for an increase in the debt limit to $16.7 trillion by permitting the Treasury to borrow through Feb. 7.

In the interim, Grimm said, "We will be working on the issues we have been talking about, the debt crisis and tax reform."

Added Grimm: "The standoff was a loss for everyone. The people who have been furloughed took the biggest loss. I am disgusted with the process. The American people want us to govern. The House, the Senate, the president, all have taken a hit."

In a statement issued by a bi-partisan group of 40 House lawmakers, including Grimm, the members said in part that they were "deeply committed to resolving this impasse and avoiding a self-inflicted economic wound that would devastate families across the country ... Now is the time for Congress to act to get government open and avoid further roiling the markets."

The shutdown ends not a moment too soon, said Staten Island business leaders.

"Most business people I speak to are frustrated that both sides can't get together and work this out," said Cesar Claro, CEO of the Staten Island Economic Development Corp. "Our members who are in the investment business tell me that if the government does not raise the debt limit the damage to the market could be worse than in 2008."

"It is frustrating," said Linda Baran, president of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce. "People want government to work. This has put people's lives in jeopardy; people have been worrying about their credit and paying bills."

Most impacted, Ms. Baran said, is "the tech industry, which hasn't been able to get the data and resources they need since the shutdown."

Still, said Claro, locally all "the back and forth is minimal -- more of a distraction -- unless you count on government contracts, in which case you are not getting paid. An actual debt crisis is something entirely different. That would be felt because I would expect severe layoffs (of) government and non-government employees."

At the start of the shutdown, on Oct. 1, Grimm was highly visible, making the rounds on TV talk shows.

He initially called for a continuing resolution that would have kept the government fully operational while the Senate took up House objections to the Affordable Care Act, which the Senate declined to do.

He then called for a one-year delay on the individual mandates portion, another non-starter.

His vote with the House majority to delay effectively led to the shutdown of the government.